any digital camera mavens around?

[unclej]

some knuclehead jacked my digital camera the other day and i need a new one. i was planning on upgrading anyway so now i have an excuse. while comparing them i'm coming up with specs that i don't know anything about so i could use some help. i will be using it mostly to take pics of my custom guitars and other woodwork to post on a webb page and to send to a couple of stores that buy my stuff to show them what i have in inventory. so i need good closeup detail of things from guitar size down to maybe coffee cup size.

ok, can you tell me about the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom? how much difference is there between a 2 megapixel and a 3 megapixel camera in terms of clarity? what does CCD mean when it refers to optical sensor type? and lastly, can you recommend any particular brand and model?

thanks

 

[login]

ok, can you tell me about the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom? how much difference is there between a 2 megapixel and a 3 megapixel camera in terms of clarity? what does CCD mean when it refers to optical sensor type? and lastly, can you recommend any particular brand and model?

Optical zoom is done with the lens, digital zoom is interpolated by the camera electronics. Digital zoom is almost worthless, so you want to get a camera with as high an optical zoom as you can.

2mp vs 3mp... There is a visible difference. At current pricing, the 3mp is well worth the little extra charge, IMO.

Charged Couple Device, I believe. I'm not sure how it compares to the other technologies available.

I've always been partial to Sony and Nikon my self. The colors seem to be truer, the images clearer.

I can also recommend spending a little bit on a decent tripod. You can get a fairly nice one for $50, and you can't beat them for closeup work.

I'm far from being an expert, so YMMV.

 

[unclej]

thanks login...that's exactly the type of info i needed. as for tripods, those i have. i've used nikon 35mm cameras for years so i definitely trust them and assume that their optics are as good on the digitals as they are on the 35's.

by the way, good to meet you. what general part of texas are you from. i'm down just south west of austin myself.

thanks again
unclej

 

[login]

Great! With your background in film photography, you should be able to do some really nice stuff with a good digital camera.

I'm in NE Texas, about 2 hours east of Dallas.

 

[unclej]

you ought to get to know #1tankcommander and marksgirl if you haven't already. they're in dallas and they're pretty cool people if you don't mind them being pervs. i think there are quite a few litsters up there. do a search for a thread that i think was titled "texans take over lit" and it'll give you a good idea of just how many texans there are here.

 

[Soblue]

This place has reviews on tons of cameras for you to compare features.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

 

[modest mouse]

Lots of the technical details can be found online. Most of the retail sites have good info and explanations.

Last week I bought a Fuji Finepix 2650 from Amazon. Amazon had the camera on sale as well as an ongoing sale on memeory that saved me 25 dollars. This is my first digital after being a skeptic at first. Its easy to use, plenty of features for me, and was less than 200 dollars.

I also shopped this site extensively:

www.jandr.com

 

[The Heretic]

A lot depends on what your needs and wants are, but generally I recommend making a list of what you want to do then reading the reviews to see what matches.

What I generally don't recommend:

1) Proprietary memory formats such as Sony's memory stick - expensive and small in memory capacity. Sony makes some really cool cams, but their main problem seems to be that they want to only be compatible with their own memory media - the better to lock you into having to buy their memory. I recommend cams that use Compact Flash II over other media as that format has the most capacity and value. You can even get an IBM 1 gigabyte hardrive for CFII cams that fits in the slot as if it were a CFII card.

2) Get as much optical zoom as you can, at least 2-3X. Unfortunately you often have to weigh how much zoom you can get against size, cost and compatibility with CFII. Digital zoom is mostly a marketing gimmick - especially when they talk about anything over 4X digizoom. I have used the digizoom on my cam and gotten decent pics, but only when I had to. You can get almost the same result by taking the pic at the highest res, least compression, then using something like Photoshop - you just have to do it manually to the file.

3) Get as much cam as you can afford - you will be happier than if you have to upgrade later.

My cam is a Canon G1 and I really like it. It has all the manual and programmed modes to override the automatic modes and I can add lenses to it if I want. It is just about the right size.

There are some rpetty cool cams out there ranging from very small to rather large, so you can pretty much find whatever you want if you have the money.

 

[LovetoGiveRoses]

I've had four now. Two of them were pick-pocketed. Therefore, I have lots of experience shopping for them.

If you're going to take lots of indoor pictures (sounds like you are) then you should make sure that you have an effective flash. Most digital camera's have them built in, but some have "shoes" so that you can add an external flash (typically more powerful).

On the 2mb vs 3mb, the real difference is in the size of the output that you can make. The 2mb makes a decent 8x11 output, the 3mb is a little bit better at the large size. For a 2x3 or a 4x6 shot, 2mb vs 3mb doesn't make much difference.

I used my camera for taking pictures or large outdoor things for a long time (lots of traveling). The 3X optical was just fine for that. Now I use it for sports and fast moving events and I find that I need a larger Zoom (10X optical would be good) and a fast focus...though I haven't researched this yet.

There's a new technology for digital camera's that's just been released. It increases the quality of the output dramatically. But it's expensive right now.

 

[LovetoGiveRoses]

The new technology uses a depth of color concept where the color pixel can be any of the three basic colors and not one of three. This will provide higher resolution on the screens.